Chris Davies explains why he’s ‘taken the shine’ off Birmingham City record buy Jay Stansfield
League One was never going to be easy for Jay Stansfield from the moment he re-signed for Birmingham City.
The transfer of Stansfield from Fulham to Blues was arguably the most eye-catching deal on deadline day in August. A League One club had never shelled out more than £4million on a player, let alone three times that figure.
Slightly less newsworthy was the fact the Stansfield fee doubled Blues’ own previous record transfer. Tom Wagner made it his mission to bring Stansfield back to Birmingham and nothing was going to get in the way.
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We all wondered how Stansfield, a relatively quiet character behind the scenes, would deal with the pressure that would come his way. Twelve goals in 20 League One games – 14 across all competitions – has been a resounding response.
There have been eye-catching games, such as Wrexham at home where he scored twice on his St Andrew’s homecoming, and crucial goals in away wins at Barnsley and Crawley in December. And yet, those who watched Stansfield excel in the Championship last season know that there’s more to come from the 22-year-old.
Blues manager Chris Davies referenced Stansfield’s age – and leant on the word ‘development’ – when assessing the striker’s season so far. “He was here last season, he was very popular, there was a clamour to get him back, we managed to do that, but he’s still young,” Davies began. “In any other context you would be saying he’s a young player to develop, but he’s almost had to come in as a talisman which is not easy at such a young age. He’s handled it well.
“He’s a marked man. If we were in the Premier League and some of the incidents that happen, and the fouls and everything, you would probably get a lot more protection to help him. It’s such a physical league and it can sort of wrestle with you a little bit. He’s had to find space, just off the front line and make his moves from a little bit deeper, I think he’s developed his game in that sense.
“He’s played off the left, played in the middle just off as a 10, up as a nine, so there’s different ideas. One thing he does is he presses incredibly well, high intensity and he’s got that physical capacity to press and press and press again, which I love.
“He’s one of the league’s top scorers, hopefully we can keep going that direction, but there’s a development there for what is still a young player.”
The hope is that Stansfield will move up a gear if Blues are, as expected, promoted to the Championship at the first attempt. He won’t be such a marked man in the second tier and he won’t be kicked from pillar to post.
Davies added: “League One is more physical than the Championship. You might get more distance covered in the Championship and the players might be better athletes in some ways the higher the levels you go. The speed of the game in the Premier League is the key difference. The physicality of (League One), there’s a lot of duels and a lot of contact and probably more so when you go down to League Two.
“You see high quality technical players like Willum (Willumsson), as an example, he’s had to adapt to certain games where he probably wonders what’s going on. He’s someone who if he’s playing at a higher level might feel more natural with the way the game is played.
“It’s my job to prepare them for that but we’ve got to do it. It’s not just a case of Premier League player comes to League One and he’s above the level, hence why we’ve done so well as a team because it’s not a case of signing all these players and they are going to be better than everyone. They have to work as a team, they have to be organised, they have to adapt to the situations that they’re in all the time.”
Stansfield has had injuries to contend with too. He missed a game in October and a couple of weeks at the beginning of January. With big games at Wrexham and Huddersfield Town on the schedule, Davies couldn’t afford Stansfield time to get up to speed. Blues’ talisman hasn’t been fully fit, but he’s been fit enough.
Davies commented: “He’s done the Exeter game and then he’s had to go back-to-back, that’s why I’ve taken the shine off him in some games to try and alleviate the potential risk – the more fatigue, the more risk. I’m trying to protect him really.”
